Breaking the Surface
by JoeMerl
Summary: They can barely speak around each other. Heck, they can barely BREATHE around each other. You know, if Hugo had been saner, he probably wouldn't have gone looking for friends in the Hogwarts Lake. A fluffy, somewhat strange Hugo/OC friendship fic with canon-compliant merpeople. COMPLETE.
1. Diving In

**Author's Notes: **Weird story is weird. It can blamed on several things, but mostly it was inspired by trolling through the "Mermaid" tag on PotterSues. I just decided to do something about the canon merpeople (who are pretty interesting, really) rather than make up something about pretty ones who can turn into humans when they dry off or something.

This was originally a one-shot, but it's about 10,000 words now so I'll publish it as three or four chapters instead. I hope somebody likes random OC friendship fics/xenofiction enough to enjoy!

* * *

The Hogwarts boats sailed overhead twice every year, about a dozen dark shadows disrupting the calm surface of the water.

Nobody down in the village really noticed when they passed. They were like airplanes flying above a human town, distant and only vaguely interesting. The merpeople had occasional issues with the wizards up at the school, but the boats didn't really bother anyone and were subsequently ignored.

Lacu had not even realized that they would be going by tonight, though now that she saw them, she was fascinated. They were such an interesting way for humans to compensate for their inability to swim right.

She kept pace with the little fleet, swimming higher up to catch a closer look. For a moment she even thought of breaking the surface, but she hesitated, coming to a stop and allowing the black shapes to pass over her head. She was startled as something suddenly came through from above, and she saw five stubby human fingers sail by, almost close enough to pass through her hair. They vanished just as quickly.

"_Lacu!_"

She turned around and down to see her little brother Lagu, arms crossed as he made a face at her. "Can't you tell it's dark out?" he snapped. "Mum wants you home for dinner!"

She frowned. "Tell her I'll be there in a few minutes!"

He didn't answer, just swam in an arc and headed back toward the village. Lacu cast one last curious glance at the boats just as they vanished into the night.

* * *

"Hey, the teacher said to keep your hands inside the boat! I'm telling!"

"Don't be a jerk!" Lily Potter snapped, even as her cousin Hugo Weasley hastily removed his fingers from the water.

"But the teacher _said_—"

"There was something down there," Hugo interrupted, squinting down at the black surface of the lake.

"It was probably the giant squid!" said the boat's fourth occupant excitedly. "My brother said that the lake has a giant squid and that there are _unicorns_ and _werewolves _in the forest!"

Hugo normally would have been quite happy at the prospect of seeing any of those things, but this time he merely frowned. "It didn't look like a squid. It looked more like a person."

"There are merpeople in the lake," Lily said knowingly. "My dad said so. He actually went into the lake and _met them,_ during this fourth year, I think!"

"Really?" Hugo's eyes remained fixed on the water, but a manic grin spread over his face. "_Cool. _HEY HAGRID!"

"Huh?!" The enormous man was two boats ahead of them, and he turned around so fast that his dinghy almost capsized. "Wassa matta?! Ev'ryone alright?!"

"Yeah! I just wanted to know if we're allowed to go swimming in the lake!"

Hagrid stared for a moment. "Wha', righ' now?!"

"No, just whenever!" Hugo said cheerfully.

It turned out that the answer was "no." Hugo pouted, looking down at the glassy surface again.

He wondered how long it would be before he found an opportunity to break that rule.

* * *

Evening was Lacu's favorite time to go swimming off by herself, because that was when overwater was at its most beautiful. The orange-pink sky reflected wonderfully on the surface, and as the colors faded to gray the castle would light up, with the strange shadows of its inhabitants moving around in its windows. A huge cloud of birds—owls, they were called—would swoop down from the school to go hunt in the forest, flying almost as one giant creature. Unfortunately she could never watch for long before her parents or her brother came looking for her, calling her in for the night.

Lacu was heading back now, but only slowly, idly picking pebbles out of the lake-bed and adding the nicer ones to her seaweed-rope necklace. She was in the area filled with boulders—actually old debris from the war that had happened at the school twenty years earlier—when she heard a sudden commotion. She turned, swam around a large block of stone and saw it an unexpected sight: a human boy swimming in the water, being attacked by four snickering Grindylows.

The human looked as odd as any other, with legs where his tail should be and weird pinkish-white skin. He didn't seem to be wearing as much fake skin as humans usually did, though, keeping only his waist and the top of his legs covered. His hair was long and red, and one of the Grindylows was pulling on it. The other three had taken hold of each leg and an arm, and they seemed to be pulling the boy toward the bottom of the lake. He was struggling, and his cheeks were puffed out and turning red.

The merpeople did not generally think of Grindylows as anything but pests; at worst they could hurt a small child, but one tail-whack from an adult would usually send their entire school fleeing. However, Lacu quickly realized that humans were a different story—not only were they slow and clumsy in the water, they could only breathe surface-air, so being dragged down to the sand was a legitimate danger for this boy rather than a petty annoyance.

As soon as the thought hit her she swam forward, reaching for the small bag that she kept tied around her waist. Inside were a collection of trinkets, but also a single heavy rock that she kept for tasks such as this. She pulled it out and held it high, bringing it down onto the nearest Grindylow's hand.

"Let _go!_"

Lacu heard an unpleasant _CRACK!_ as the stone made contact, breaking the Grindylow's strong but brittle fingers. It let out a cry and released the human's leg. The other Grindylows turned to Lacu and let out fearful cries—almost as one they abandoned the boy, who began to flail toward the surface in a way that was almost comically awkward. Lacu, now positioned below him, tried to push him up by his leg and didn't really help much.

She heard the human's head break the surface of the water. She was _pretty _sure that was all he needed to be able to breathe again, but she swam up after him just to be sure.

The human was indeed breathing again, and quite vigorously, too. "Well, that—wasn't—fun," he gasped. Lacu was momentarily taken aback—she knew that humans could speak water-talk above the surface, but it was still strange to hear. The human tried to wipe the damp hair out of his face, and Lacu noticed tiny reddish-brown dots all over him, going down his neck onto his shoulders. For a wild moment she thought they were Grindylow bites, but there were far too many of them, and they did not seem to be bothering the human at all.

The boy seemed to notice Lacu for the first time. His eyes suddenly went wide, and his mouth opened, revealing strangely flat and square-looking teeth. There were some sort of metal decorations on them that shone in the dimming twilight.

"Oh, wow. _Wow!_ You're a mermaid!" He seemed to have quickly gotten over his near-drowning. He suddenly leaned forward, and Lacu instinctively leaned back. "You helped me with those whatchacallems—Grindylows back there, didn't you?"

Lacu nodded. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could the human's hand suddenly splashed out of the water, extending toward her and nearly hitting her in the face.

The human waited expectantly. Lacu hesitated, then reached out her arm in the same way. The human frowned, then grabbed Lacu's hand in his own and shook it vigorously.

"Thanks for the help back there! My name is Hugo Weasley! What's yours?" He spoke very fast and very loudly.

Lacu hesitated for a moment, unsure if she should answer. Her parents usually told her to stay away from students from the human school. It wasn't quite that the merpeople and the wizards were on bad terms, but there had been various incidents of one kind of another over the course of the centuries. The two sides generally tried to stick to themselves.

"(My name is Lacu)," she said finally, and the boy called Hugo Weasley suddenly drew back, letting go of her hand. Lacu was startled in turn, and the boy began to rub his ears, frowning.

"Oh...sorry. You don't speak English, do you?"

It was Lacu's turn to frown. "(I can't speak water-talk above the surface, if that's what you mean.)"

"I'll take that as a 'no,'" Hugo Weasley said. He rubbed his chin for a moment, then pointed at himself. "MY NAME IS HUGO WEASLEY! HYOO-GO WEEZ-LEE! WHAT'S YOUR NAME?"

"(No, I—)" Lacu hesitated, then lowered her head into the water, submerging it up to her nose. "My name is Lacu," she repeated, in water-talk.

Hugo Weasley blinked, then turned his head so that one ear was underwater. "Say that again."

She did. Hugo Weasley's eyes widened again, and he flashed another manic grin.

"_Cool! _How do you do that?"

She was about to ask how _he_ managed to use water-talk when he was above the surface, but Hugo Weasley was suddenly distracted; Lacu followed his gaze and saw red sparks back at the shore. "Darn it. My friend's saying I have to go now." He hesitated, then turned back to Lacu. "Hey, can I see you again tomorrow?"

"(Tomorrow?)" She was so surprised—about this whole conversation, really—that she forgot he couldn't understand surface-talk. He seemed to get the gist, though, since he nodded even as he began swimming back to shore.

"Yeah. I'll probably start coming later than this, like after nine. I'd like to come during the day, but we're not really supposed to swim in the lake and I don't want to get caught. Plus I'm trying out for Quidditch tomorrow and we might have practice in the evening. Anyway, see you then!"

He waved, turned and paddled the rest of the way to shore (which again, looked clumsy and ridiculous). It was getting properly dark now, and Lacu watched him for only a moment before diving back under the water and racing home.

She thought about his offer as she swam. She really shouldn't come back. Rescuing a human from drowning was one thing, but making plans to meet one...not to mention after she was supposed to be in bed...

Lacu was a nervous sort of mermaid, and she didn't like to break the rules, but she was also very curious by nature. She knew she shouldn't see the human again, but something about his weird, dotted face with its goofy, flat-toothed smile just seemed to be screaming for further examination.

* * *

Miles made a face. "I don't want to go back tonight, Hugo. It's no fun just staying on shore, staring at my watch."

"Then you should have come in with me!"

"_You just said you almost drowned!_"

"Well, _yeah,_" said Hugo, with an airy wave, "but I could have fought off those Grindylows if I had my wand with me. Plus my new mermaid friend helped me out!"

Miles' scowl deepened. "I still say she didn't look like any mermaid I ever saw," the Muggle-born boy grumbled. "She looked more like a sea-monster herself."

"But she's a _nice_ one!"

* * *

Sure enough Hugo sneaked out of the Ravenclaw Common Room alone that night, wrapped up in one of his dad's older and rattier Invisibility Cloaks ("He won't even notice it's gone" Hugo had decided when he packed a few weeks before). Once at the lake he stripped to his bathing-costume and waded up to his waist, shivering slightly and scanning the immediate area. "Lacu?" he called, trying to be loud and quiet at the same time.

Half of a head emerged hesitantly out of the water. Hugo grinned, swimming over to her. "Hey! How are you?"

He heard something muffled by the water. He crouched down and turned his head. "Say that again?"

"_Good,_" Lacu said nervously.

"That's good. I'm actually kind of lousy today," Hugo said, his exuberance suddenly turning to bitterness. "I tried out for my House Quidditch team and only got on reserves."

"Your what?"

"Quidditch team. Oh duh, I guess you don't have Quidditch underwater! It's this game..."

Hugo's bitterness vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and he went off on a long tangent about how Quidditch worked and how you played and why the Chudley Cannons were much better than the Falmouth Falcons and his cousin Louis just had to learn to deal with it. Lacu, though still wary of this whole meeting, took advantage of a lull in his ramble to talk about a game merpeople played that was sort of similar, except you swam instead of flew and some of the terms were different. Soon the two were speculating about whether or not the games were related somehow, before Hugo went off on another tangent about how the Cannons could beat the Falcons even better underwater because ships use cannonballs but obviously falcons can't swim.

Eventually the conversation died and the two were just floating in silence, which for once Hugo didn't feel the need to fill. He cocked his head to one side, trying to make Lacu out in the moonlight. Miles had a point—she really _did_ kind of look like a sea-monster, with her gray skin and her long green hair and her eyes that looked bigger and yellower than a human's. She showed her teeth when she smiled, which were dirty and pointed like fangs. But it was a nice smile anyway, and it reached up to her eyes, making her whole weird face seem kind and sincere.

"You know, you're really cool."

Lacu blinked, then put her mouth below the water again. "Um, thanks," she said sheepishly.

He looked around. "Huh. We've kind of drifted a long way from shore. Hey, let's have a race! First one back there—_whoa!_"

Instead of racing, Lacu grabbed Hugo by the wrist and began to pull him back toward shore, swimming far faster than he could have managed. It was a rough ride with his head emerging and sinking into the water every few seconds, but he laughed the whole time and didn't care how much water he swallowed.

By the time they stopped swimming, Lacu was laughing too.


	2. Exchanges

**Author's Notes:** This story has been up for about a day and has received zero reviews/faves/alerts and only eleven hits.

...I knew this was a sort of weird idea, but seriously, this is probably my least popular story ever. Well, _I_ like it, and thanks in advance to anyone else who does.

* * *

Hugo got into the habit of coming down to the lake just about every Friday and Saturday night (he didn't have classes the next morning so who cared if he slept 'til noon?) A few times he brought his cousin Lily with him. He talked a lot about the rest of his family and kept debating whether he should bring his sister or other cousins, but he was worried that most of them would disapprove and tell on him. ("Well, James wouldn't, but he'd just try to blackmail me.")

"I know what you mean," Lacu said one time when the two of them were alone. "My mother and father would be furious if they found out I was sneaking out so much. Especially to see a human."

Hugo frowned at that. "What's wrong with humans?" He sounded hurt. Hugo was normally very chipper, but his emotions could change faster than a Lobalug stinging.

"Nothing," Lacu said quickly. "It's just...well, it's the rule. You wizards aren't supposed to come into the water without Merchieftain Siorc's permission."

This was apparently a revelation to Hugo. "We're not? I thought the school just had a dumb safety rule or something."

"Maybe." Privately Lacu thought it would be good if they did; it always worried her how weak Hugo seemed in the water. He couldn't even stay under for a full minute, and after an hour or two of swimming he always had to drag himself back up to the castle. "But whenever people from the school want to come into the lake they have to ask for permission. The Merchieftain usually allows it if it's for magical lessons or something, but I don't think the grown-ups want everyone in the school playing in here."

"Oh."

Hugo was strangely depressed after that. It was one thing to think that the school just wanted to keep them safe or even quash their fun; it was another thing to realize that the merpeople just didn't want them around.

* * *

Several weeks passed, and somehow Hugo and Lacu never seemed to run out of things to talk about. Lacu had always thought of her lake village as boring, but Hugo seemed fascinated by every prosaic thing she could think of, from her mother's seaweed garden to her dad's (largely symbolic) warrior society to her little brother's pet Grindylow. She, in turn, grew more and more enchanted hearing about the wizard school, and Hugo could always go on and on about whatever classes he had had in the previous week.

Initially talk had been awkward due to the language issue. Eventually the two figured out the best way to converse—Hugo would float on his back, with his ears submerged and his eyes up toward the stars, and Lacu would lie on her stomach so that her mouth was in the water. She poked her head out now to watch as Hugo carelessly waved his wand. Three jars that he had filled with fairies were floating over their heads, casting a bright glow over the water.

"I wish I could do magic like that," she said once her face was back in the lake.

Hugo smiled. "Yeah. But I really can't do very much."

"But you'll learn to one day, right? Up at the school?"

"Hopefully." Then he suddenly spun off from his back, splashing around to face her. "I wonder if I could teach _you_ magic?"

Lacu looked up from the water and gave him a skeptical look. Before she knew what was happening Hugo had shoved his wand into her webbed hand and directed it toward one of the fairy jars. She squealed in surprise.

"No, it's easy. Just swish the wand like _this_—flick it like _this_—and now say _Wingardium Leviosa!_"

Lacu tried to imitate his motions and repeat his words, but her throat was only able to produce some Mermish screeches.

Instantly the wand grew hot in her hand and let out a blast of red light, which hit the fairy jar and shattered it in the air. Human and mermaid let out startled cries along with the fairies, who immediately flew off in every direction as the shards of glass fell into the water.

"...On second thought, I don't think I'm cut out to be a teacher."

* * *

For a moment Lacu thought that Hugo was holding a frog in his hand, though on closer examination she saw that it was dark brown and lifeless. He smiled.

"It's a Chocolate Frog! It's candy," he explained, breaking off a piece and popping it in his mouth. "The very finest in human cuisine. Try some!"

Lacu took a piece hesitantly, turning it over in her hand. It didn't look very appetizing to her, and it seemed to be melting even as she held it. She cautiously took a bite. It was sickly-sweet and kind of slimy, coating her mouth and sticking in her teeth.

"_Mmm,_" she said, forcing a smile, happy that her face was out of the water so that she didn't have to comment further. She passed up another piece when Hugo offered it, though; he simply shrugged and ate the rest himself.

Despite not liking the chocolate, Lacu decided to repay the favor by smuggling some merperson food to Hugo the next day. Fittingly, it turned out to be made from _actual_ frog. "_Mmm!_" said Hugo. "This is delicious!"

Lacu smiled. However, as soon as she had turned Hugo spat it into the water, shuddering.

* * *

October turned into November which turned into December, and the air kept getting colder and crisper. Hugo continued to show up every weekend, though his visits grew shorter and Lacu wondered if he should be coming at all. "Are you alright?" she asked as Hugo slowly slipped into the water, leaving most of his fake skin in the snow and shivering violently.

He took his ear out of the water. "I-I'll b-be f-f-fine," he stammered, tiny little bumps breaking out all over his body. "B-Besides, this is my last ch-ch-chance to see you before Christmas b-break. And h-hey—I got you s-something!"

He was carrying a package under his arm, carefully trying to keep it dry. He put it into her damp hands. "I know you don't celebrate Christmas, but anyway—remember how I was telling you about paper?"

"Yes." Lacu's people had writing, but only carved onto stone or pieces of driftwood; Hugo had spent some time explaining about parchment and how useful it was. "Is that what this stuff is?"

"That's the wrapping paper. Just—rip that off. The real present is _underneath_ it."

Lacu carefully removed the bright paper; the wetness of her hands seemed to be dissolving it, and it melted once she threw it in the water. Inside was a book with covers that were hard like wood, but with many more thin pieces of paper between them.

"_TA-DA!_" Hugo said, motioning dramatically. "It's _The Book of Spells_ in Mermish! I mean, I know you probably can't _learn_ any spells from it, but it can Conjure props by itself and show magical demonstrations of how the spells work and everything—it's like a better version of the book we use for Charms in the school. And I paid extra to get it _waterproof!_ Go ahead, dunk it in the water and see."

Lacu, feeling slightly overwhelmed, dipped the bottom of the book in the lake and then flipped through the pages. Unlike the wrapping paper, the book seemed fine—indeed, it was perfectly dry. Lacu looked at the cover again, which had a strange beauty to it; like so many human things it seemed more elegant than anything she had back in the village.

She felt speechless for a moment, then hugged it to her chest. "(Thank you,)" she whispered, momentarily forgetting that he couldn't understand. Then it occurred to her that she didn't have anything to give to him. She doubted he would mind—he had given no indication that this gift was coming, after all—but maybe it was a human custom and he would think that she should have known to have one too? Either way, she had to give him _something._

All Lacu really had on her at the moment was her necklace. There was really nothing special about it—some sea-weed rope with pebbles and shells tied onto it—but she took it off and held it out to Hugo. He blinked.

"For me?"

She nodded, embarrassed to be paying something so dull for something so wonderful. But to her surprise he grinned, carefully placing it around his neck and puffing out his chest proudly.

* * *

Hugo was gone for the next few weeks, as he'd said he'd be, but Lacu made up for it by reading the book she gave him every Friday and Saturday night (in secret; she didn't want her parents or Lagu to ask any awkward questions). Reading the incantations and watching the ghostly figures emerge from the book and demonstrate wand movement only made her more jealous of Hugo and the other wizards. Some days she swam near the shore just to watch the humans who remained at the school as they levitated snowballs at each others' heads.

Hugo returned in early January (still proudly wearing Lacu's necklace) and talked excitedly about his holiday and seeing his family and getting presents from the mysterious wizard called "Father Christmas." His visits were still short at first, but they got longer as the snow melted and the weather began to warm. By spring they were back to long meetings that lasted until midnight. They talked but also played games—they had races, splash battles, and tried to see who could hold their breath longer (Lacu won even when she covered up her gills). Sometimes Hugo would come with pockets full of those shiny metal discs called Knuts, sprinkling them in the water to see who could dive down and find the most. He didn't seem to mind that he never won.

One day while they were swimming around Lacu playfully pulled on the waistband of Hugo's bathing-costume. "What is this thing you always wear, anyway?"

"Hey!" He laughed, pulling his body away from hers. "Those are my swim trunks!"

"Why do you wear them?"

He giggled more. "Because otherwise I'd be naked!"

"So?"

Hugo paused, and for the first time seemed to realize that Lacu wasn't wearing any clothes, except for the bag around her waist and the new necklace that she had made herself. Then again, she didn't seem to have any of the—_things_ that humans used clothes to cover up anyway. He wasn't quite sure if that made swimming around with her appropriate, but decided to ignore the issue for now and ask his father for that "Fwoopers and Billywigs" talk sometime over Easter break.

* * *

"...so my Uncle Harry had to go down to your village and rescue him. But he wasn't actually in any real danger, so I don't know why they went on with the message like they were going to keep him forever."

"That's not so strange," Lacu said. "At least, it sounds like the sort of thing my father's warrior society does for initiation."

"Really?"

Lacu nodded, even though they were facing away from each other and Hugo couldn't see her. "Like when my father joined. They 'kidnapped' my mother—this was back before they were married—and hid her in another part of the lake. Then the whole society started singing that they would keep her forever unless my father went off to find her." She giggled. "Which is kind of silly—my mum could probably rip the tail off anyone in the society. Plus her mum was still Merchieftainess back then."

"Ah. So the Triwizard Tournament was actually an exercise in interspecial cultural exchange!" Hugo gave a dopey grin. "Neat. They should hold another one."

A long pause held between the two of them.

"How did your parents and uncle manage to come to the village, anyway? How did they breathe?"

Hugo frowned. "I dunno. Lily didn't mention that part."

* * *

"Hey," Hugo said a few weeks later, when the two were floating calmly on the surface of the water again. "I just thought of something. How do you merpeople go to the bathroom?"

"Go to the what?"

* * *

One night Hugo was telling Lacu about Easter, and she, in turn, started telling him about a festival the merpeople would be having to celebrate the passage from spring into summer. He was enraptured as she described the all-night feast, the singing, the people from her father's warrior society holding fake battles and swimming contests...

"...and once, a few years ago, we swam up the river and spent the festival in the city by the coast, in the ocean. It must have been ten times larger than my village. They had big temples and a racetrack for hippocampi and _everything._"

"_Wow,_" Hugo breathed. He was floating on his back staring up at the stars, but his mind was under the water, gazing around a sort of ancient Greek city filled with regal-looking selkies. His grin was lopsided and dreamy.

"Yeah. I hope we can go back some day," Lacu said. "But I bet the places you've been to are even better. I'd love to see London or another of your other human cities. And there are so many more of them than we have."

"Yeah, but the merpeople cities sound cooler. I'd trade a week in Diagon Alley for ten minutes in your village any day."

She gave a wan smile, flashing pointed teeth down into th lake. "You wouldn't say that if you saw it."

Hugo didn't respond for a long time. Finally he said, "You know, I wish we didn't always have to meet like this."

Lacu blinked her large eyes. "What do you mean?" she asked into the water.

"I mean like—_this,_" he said, motioning vaguely in her direction. "We can't even really look at each other when we talk, and when we _do_ look at each other or play a game we have to _stop_ talking to do it. And we always have to meet _here,_ around the shore. Because I can't go underwater and you can't come on land. Stupid human lungs," he added bitterly.

She shrugged. "It's not so bad," she said. "Meeting you has certainly made my life more interesting."

"Well, yeah. Don't get me wrong—I really _like_ talking to you. That's the problem. It's like—" He bit his lip, trying to think. "All my friends up at the school and I have made plans to stay over at each other's houses during the summer. And I can see them in class or in the Great Hall or whenever. You're one of my best friends too, but we can't _ever _help each other with homework or see how we've decorated our bedrooms or do any of the stupid stuff that friends are supposed to do. It's not fair."

Lacu tried to think up some kind of response to that, but only sighed, brushing a bit of hair away from her face. It suddenly seemed very sad that she had to keep her face in the water to reply to him. "I know what you mean. I wish I could go on land and look around the castle with you."

"Yeah, that'd be awesome." Suddenly he snapped his fingers. "I know! Maybe I could try to Transfigure you into a human!"

"Can you _do_ that?" she asked, her eyes growing wide.

"Well...no. Actually, I can barely Transfigure a housefly into a bee." He screwed up his face. "Maybe I could ask one of my cousins. Dominique is a seventh-year. They learn how to turn humans into other stuff."

"But then she would need to turn _you_ into a merman, wouldn't she?"

"That would be _even more _awesome! ...But she probably wouldn't want to help." He paused, unconsciously playing with one of the pebbles on his necklace. "But there has to be _some_ way. I mean, we have two whole awesome worlds between us. It's not fair that we can only have fun together if we're stuck right between them."

* * *

Hugo was gone for the next week to celebrate the "Easter" holiday. Lacu's village was already preparing for the summer festival. She spent most of that Friday cleaning up the junk in and around their home—it was an old superstition, that the tides brought good luck during the celebration and everything had to be neat so that they could move unobstructed. Of course, it was really just an excuse that parents made up to get their kids to clean.

Her brother Lagu had been hefting a boulder in their yard up against the house when he frowned, dropping it back on the ground to pick up the book that had been hidden underneath it. "Hey, what's this?"

Both Lacu and her parents glanced over. "It looks like some kind of book—" her father said, but Lacu had shot forward and grabbed it before he could examine it further.

"That's mine!" she said quickly. "I found it—near the shore," she added, as her family looked at her strangely. "Someone from the human school must have dropped it in the water."

"Hmm." Lacu's mother made a face. "You should have left it there. What if the humans start saying we stole their things, then come down here to get them?"

"Well, I've had it for months," she said defensively, hugging it to her chest. "I don't think the humans mind."

"Hmm..."

Lagu, meanwhile, had bent down to gape at the parchment. "How do they make that wood so_ thin?_"

* * *

"Hey, Uncle Harry!"

"Oh, hello, Hugo. Do you need something?"

"Not really. But Lily was just telling me about this one time when you were in a contest and you had to fighting dragons and pretend to rescue my dad from merpeople and stuff. Could you tell me about that?"

"Er, well, alright. It was called the Triwizard Tournament—Hogwarts was competing with two other magical schools, and..."

Hugo put his hand to his chin, looking thoughtful as he tried to hide his smirk.

* * *

**A/N:** Everything about _The Book of Spells_ (except being able to buy waterproof copies) comes from the Harry Potter Wiki, which got it from Pottermore (or something). Half the stuff about merpeople, however, is just me trying to expand on the book in a logical way. (Finally putting my Anthropology minor to good use! Speaking of which, I think I have a paper due tomorrow.)

Please review!


	3. Gillyweed

**Author's Notes:** Could I get a flame? A flame would still be preferable to this dead, empty silence.

* * *

Lacu was anxious as she waited for Hugo the following week. Luckily he appeared a few minutes early, already in his swim trunks as he threw his Invisibility Cloak and towel on the grass. He ran up to the water grinning, holding something tightly in his hands.

"Guess what?!"

Lacu didn't answer; she was waiting for him to put his ear in the water so that she could remind him that she needed to leave for the festival. Instead he unclasped his hands, revealing something that looked like a ball of slimy worms. She stared at it.

"(Is that for me? It looks tastier than most of your other human food.)"

"I...don't know what you just said. But this'll solve our problem! See, I asked my Uncle Harry about that time he went to your village, and he told me all about how he and the other contestants did it. Some of them used this charm that lets you put a bubble of air around your head, and one guy turned himself into a shark, but that's all, like, sixth-year magic that I don't know how to do—but _this _is called gillyweed. All I have to do is eat this, and then I'll be able to breathe underwater for about an hour. I'll be able to go with you to your festival!"

Lacu's eyes widened, as did Hugo's grin. He seemed to be waiting for a response, then suddenly bent down, remembering that he had to put his ear in the water.

"That's incredible," Lacu breathed. "I've never even heard of a plant like that. Are you sure this will work?"

"Pretty sure! I looked it up in one of my mum's books. It grows down in, like, the Mediterranean—it'll be really hard to get more after this, but I figured that tonight would be the best time to use it. I had to buy this from my Potions professor."

(One week later, Professor Lemery would look through her meticulously-organized cabinet and be very confused to find a pile of Galleons where her supply of gillyweed used to be.)

"So what do you think?"

Lacu's head was spinning. "I think it's a great idea. I mean—maybe." She frowned. "But what if somebody sees you? You're still not supposed to be in the lake, let alone down in the village. And everyone will be out tonight celebrating."

He frowned. "Oh yeah." His shoulders slumped, sinking into the water. "Maybe you're right. And I really wanted to see this, too..."

He looked so disappointed that Lacu could hardly stand it. "Well...I mean, obviously you wouldn't be able to come down and sing in the middle of the town square—but you could still come and watch, I guess. If you hide."

Hugo's blue eyes perked up a little. "Really? You don't think anyone will see me?"

"I...probably not?"

He smiled. Then he stood, taking his head out of the water, and gave the gillyweed a determined look.

"Alright, then. Here we go."

He shoved it into his mouth and began to chew. From the looks of it he didn't like the taste, but he choked it down, panting a bit when he finished.

Lacu stared for a moment. "Did it work?"

"I don't—know," he said, staring at his hands. "My Uncle Harry said it would turn me into, like, a fish-man—he said it was different than a merperson, but I'm not quite sure..."

He trailed off, and a minute passed, and Lacu was starting to worry that it wasn't going to work. Then he let out a little gasp, and Lacu followed his gaze back to his hands—his fingers were growing, no longer short and stubby like a human's, but longer and pointed and webbed. He made a slight choking sound, but grinned as he pointed to his neck—gills were beginning to appear, opening up like bloodless cuts on his skin.

Hugo steeled himself and dove into the water—Lacu followed after him, and found him turning around to grin at her, taking a deep breath and kicking with his newly-webbed feet. They propelled him deeper, and soon he was kicking along just above the sand, following the lake-bed as it slanted into deeper waters.

Lacu couldn't help but laugh, both at his mood and his appearance in general. He no longer looked like a normal human, but nor did he look like a merperson—he still had legs, however altered, and while his skin looked less pink it was still covered in all those little "freckle" things everywhere that she could see. His hair was still bright orange-red, and his eyes remained small and blue; overall he looked even stranger than normal, stuck in a hybrid form between the two species. Yet he no longer had that human frailty in water—he seemed to move easily in it now, and looked absolutely delighted as he breathed in and out, flashing teeth that still were dull and square and shiny with metal "braces."

"_(This is so cool!)_" he cried—or at least tried to cry, for instead a large bubble came out of his mouth. He suddenly stopped swimming, his eyes turning down in surprise.

Lacu froze. "Hugo? What's the matter?"

"_(I can't talk!)_" he cried—another bubble.

"You can't talk?"

He nodded, and suddenly his shoulders slumped. He had really wanted to be able to talk to her—like a normal person, face-to-face, as they went around and saw all the awesome things she had told him about. All this had done was reverse their normal problem. Lacu noticed his disappointment and shared it, but only frowned to herself, trying to see the bright side.

"Well...that's okay. We can still swim together—we don't need to talk." She took his webbed hand in her, and he looked up to see her smiling at him. "Come on, follow me to the village!"

She began to swim, still holding his hand, and he followed. He could still not swim as fast or as well as she could, but nearly so, and as they dove deeper and deeper he began to smile again, gazing around in amazement. At first the water was too cloudy to see much, but it seemed to get clearer as they got deeper, and to him the whole scene was a marvel—the sand below them looked like some vast desert, with crabs and Plimpies occasionally popping out and walking along along the tiny dunes. There were hundreds of fish around them, some glowing or singing or shooting by with streams of bubbles from their mouths, influenced by all the magic coming from the school. At one point they had to stop dead in their track as a huge, dark shadow glided by mere feet in front of them, surveying them with an eye as wide as Hugo was tall.

"_(The Giant Squid!)_" Hugo tried to yell, his own eyes now wide with excitement. He squeezed Lacu's hand tighter, and again she could only laugh at how absolutely awed he was. Once it passed they kept going, and after a few minutes the outskirts of the village finally came into view.

It was not the underwater utopia that Hugo had envisioned, but surprise only made him more curious to observe it. Each of the dozens of little houses was small and made of stone, covered with algae but decorated with shells or pebbles or other little ornaments. A large statue of a merman stood in the center of town, and here was where all the merpeople had assembled—scores of them, maybe hundreds, men and women and children. They milled around, laughing and talking, and they saw everywhere, not only near the ground but up high enough to skim the rooftops and decorate the statue's head with garlands of seaweed. There were so many of them, and they all looked, from the shades of green in their hair and gray on their skin and what they were wearing and the ways they swam...

Hugo could barely breathe, and touched his neck to make sure that his gills were still flapping open.

They swam low to the sand as they approached; fortunately the rest of the town seemed almost empty, so they were able to get just outside the town square without being seen. "The opening ceremony is going to start soon," Lacu said as they ducked behind a house. "My parents will be looking for me. You stay here—I'll tell them I'm going to be singing with a group of my friends and come right back."

He nodded, and Lacu swam off. He spent the next several minutes trying to stay hidden, holding onto the house's side to keep from drifting every which way—he wondered how merpeople got used to something like that. Maybe it was just like wind to them? Finally Lacu returned. "Okay, they're about to start." She frowned again. "How long did you say you could stay?"

Hugo opened his mouth to speak, then remembered that he couldn't. He held up one finger. "An hour, right," Lacu said. "Well...you can hear the opening song, at least. But then we'll have to swim right back up to the surface." She was suddenly very worried—an hour wasn't very long now that she thought about it, and as amazing as it was to see Hugo move through the water so easily, it would only be for a short time...

A long, musical trill suddenly broke through the water. Hugo jumped, and Lacu motioned for him to look around the house, back at the town square. Merchieftain Siorc—a very large merman with a copious green beard—had swam up level with the massive statue's head, singing the long note as he brandished his spear. After a moment a few other merpeople swam a little lower and began to join him, with the music expanding outward until the entire square was singing.

"This is the opening song," Lacu whispered. She made a face. "I'm sorry it's probably all you've have time to hear..."

She stopped talking as she caught sight of Hugo's face. He was still holding onto the stone wall to keep from drifting in the current, but his face was completely placid, with an extra-dopey smile playing on his lips.

Hugo had researched merpeople a lot in the past year. One thing he read was that ancient Greek Muggles believed their music was so beautiful that any sailor who heard it would get hypnotized and crash their boat by mistake. Uncle Harry had mentioned hearing the merpeople singing, but nothing about it being particularly good. And maybe it hadn't been for him, but for Hugo...yeah, he thought. He could see himself crashing a boat while listening to this. Especially since sailing a boat was probably pretty complicated and Hugo was by nature easily distracted.

Sometimes it seemed like the merpeople were singing with words that he couldn't understand, and sometimes it seemed like they were just singing; Hugo quickly decided that he did not care which was right. It was a slow, warbling, kind of wet sound, and you could really tell that it was meant to be heard through the water. It was kind of...haunting, like it sounded sort of sad but made him feel really happy at the same time. And it was making his mind, which usually traveled a mile per minute, slow down and feel fuzzy, but in an enjoyable sort of way. It sort of reminded him of when he had met some of Aunt Fleur's veela relatives, who had been so nice to look at that he could ignore how being around them made his brain off-kilter.

"It's really pretty," he said simply.

Lacu blinked. "Um, thank you?"

Hugo wasn't sure how long the merpeople had been singing, or how long they were going to sing, but he just sort of floated there feeling calm and happy, occasionally glancing at Lacu and sharing a grin, when suddenly—

"HEY!"

Hugo's calmness instantly vanished as he felt a pair of pointed fingers digging into his bare shoulder. He spun around and saw a furious-looking merman, and behind him an adult mermaid who had grabbed Lacu by the arm. Another mermaid was with him, and before Hugo even had any idea of what to do she was swimming around the building and yelling in the town square.

"Merchieftain! Merchieftain!"

The music stopped within five seconds. Hugo's captor had suddenly spun him around and dug into his pockets—extracting his wand—then dragged him around the building and up the Merchieftain, who was having a quiet, furious discussion with the mermaid guard. Hugo twisted around and saw Lacu being dragged forward too, her eyes wide with fear. Hugo suddenly felt his stomach clench. It had never occurred to him to ask what the merpeople would _do_ if they found out he broke the rules about coming into the lake. He groaned, letting a torrent of bubbles escape from his mouth.

Hugo could hear the crowd murmuring, and Merchieftain Siorc's eyes grew wide at the sight of them. "Who is this?!" he demanded, his voice booming.

Hugo gave what he hoped was a winning grin, but the Merchieftain's gaze was focused mostly on Lacu. She looked away fearfully.

A merman and a mermaid had come forward, the latter looking especially angry. Merchieftain Siorc focused on them. "Saegrund—Muisciuil. Crubag says that this boy from the Wizarding school was hiding out with your daughter. Did either of you know about this?"

"We did not," said Lacu's mother, and despite his predicament, Hugo couldn't help but notice that she did look quite a bit like her daughter; the main difference was that Lacu looked nice and thus kind of weirdly pretty, while this mermaid was snarling and making Hugo feel like he was going to be sick. Hadn't Lacu said something about how her mum could rip the tails off of other merpeople if she wanted to? He gulped.

"Lacu, what is the meaning of this?" asked her father, who had the same shade of green hair as she did.

"I—I'm sorry," Lacu muttered vaguely, not meeting her parents' gaze.

The merman holding Hugo suddenly pushed him forward and let him go so that he floated alone in front of the Merchieftain; Hugo suddenly felt very small. "And you, boy," the Merchieftain boomed. "Did the teachers in your school not tell you that this lake is our territory? What do you have to say for yourself?"

"_(Um—you know I can't answer that, right?)_" Hugo said, though of course it came out as a bunch of bubbles. The Merchieftain didn't look amused.

Lacu suddenly found her courage, swimming closer. "Please, Merchieftain Siorc—I promise, Hugo—neither of us—meant to do anything wrong. He just wanted—"

"You both violated a treaty with the Hogwarts School going back more than ten generations!" Merchieftain Siorc thundered, holding up his hand dismissively. "How could you not have intended not to do wrong with that fact?"

"Hugo just really wanted to see the festival! And he really liked it! Didn't you, Hugo?" She turned to him, giving a nervous, toothy smile that quickly faded. "H-Hugo?"

His eyes had gone wide, and he was holding his neck, even as his fingers were slowly shrinking back to normal size. He frantically pointed to his gills, which seemed to be closing up before their very eyes. Lacu let out a cry and covered her mouth.

Fortunately the Merchieftain seemed to understand what was going on. "Bradan, Deiseag—get this boy overwater and back to his school immediately!"

Hugo barely had time to register what was happening as the merpeople who had grabbed him and Lacu each took hold of his arms and rocket up through the water almost faster than he could imagine. On pure instinct Lacu began to follow, but her mother grabbed her elbow, pulling her back down and spinning her around.

"Where do you think you're going?" she said, her face stony. "You are in _big_ trouble, young lady."


	4. Summer Plans

**Author's Notes:** Don't worry, story; _I_ still love you.

* * *

The merpeople's tails beat the water with amazing speed. Hugo kicked too, trying to help them, but the webbing in his toes was almost gone now and every breath he took seemed to hurt his lungs as much as it helped him.

_Faster lungs burning faster legs hurting faster getting dizzy faster SPLASH!_

Hugo's head broke the surface of the water one second after his gills had completely disappeared. The merpeople followed and easily held him up as he gasped for breath and shivering in water that had not seemed so cold a few minutes before. The three of them remained motionless until Hugo had stopped panting, but then the merpeople started to swim toward shore, keeping Hugo firmly in their grasp as they zoomed through the water like a boat.

"Um—thanks, but I'm okay now, guys. I can swim back myself now. Uh, guys? ...You're not gonna let me go, are you?"

In a few minutes they went from the center of the lake to the shore, with Hogwarts Castle looming above them. Worse, the merpeople apparently had some way to contact the school, because Hugo could see two shapes rushing toward them in the darkness. He quickly recognized the massive form of Rubeus Hagrid, but only after squinting could he make out the second figure, which had a torso like a man atop a lower body like a horse.

Oh, wow. A centaur. Normally Hugo would have been really excited to meet one, but unfortunately he was too distracted to enjoy it right now.

"Wha's goin' on?" Hagrid said, holding up a lantern and squinting his beady black eyes. "Is everythin'—wait a minute. _Hugo,_ is tha' you?"

The merpeople released him, and he stumbled in the knee-high water, hunching his shoulders. "Hi, Hagrid," he said meekly.

The merman held out Hugo's wand, which Hagrid took, and then let out a barrage of Mermish screeches. Hagrid turned to the centaur, whose eyes were closed serenely. "Bradan here says that this young boy was caught using gillyweed to infiltrate the merpeople's village."

"I wasn't _infiltrating,_" Hugo said, who sounded both hurt and indignant by that phrasing. "I was just visiting my friend Lacu."

"Lacu?" Hagrid stared at him. "Are yeh talkin' 'bout a _mermaid,_ Hugo?"

His head bobbed up and down. "She told me they were having a festival," he mumbled.

Hagrid sighed and steered Hugo onto the shore; he handed him back his wand, then produced a fluffy pink towel out of his pocket (Hagrid had very large pockets) to drape across his shoulder. "Do yeh have any other clothes 'r anythin' out here?"

"I had a towel and my dad's old Invisibility Cloak, but I left them at a different part of the shore."

"Ah, we'll find 'em tomorrow," Hagrid mumbled, taking off his enormous cloak for him instead. He turned back to the merpeople. "I apologize fer this, o' course. But I'm sure Hugo here didn' mean any harm by it. He's just the curious sort. Kids'll be kids, yeh know how it is."

The mermaid said something. "Deiseag says that were in not for their intervention, it is likely Hugo would have drowned," said the centaur.

"Well, kids'll be stupid too, won' they?"

"I warn you, Hagrid, our friends here consider this a serious matter. If you mean to imply that this boy will remain unpunished—"

"Ah, he'll be punished, don' yeh worry," Hagrid grumbled, and Hugo winced. "I can't say how—tha's fer his Head o' House to decide, and he ain't one o' mine. But I get it—the lake's yer territory, and Hugo shouldn' o' gone in. We'll take care o' it. Come on, Hugo."

They started to walk away—Hugo tripping on Hagrid's massive coat—when he stopped and turned back toward the merpeople. He was pouting, his eyes on the surface of the water.

"For what's it's worth, I really liked your village," he mumbled. "Especially the music. It was really pretty."

The merpeople's eyebrows raised an iota, but otherwise they remained expressionless as Hugo turned around and followed Hagrid and the centaur back up toward the school.

* * *

Hugo's jaw dropped. "A week's detention _and_ fifty points from Ravenclaw?" He fell back in his seat. "I didn't _murder_ anybody!"

"Not that we can prove, anyway," muttered Deputy Headmistress Baumgartner.

Professor Wei, the Astronomy teacher and Head of Ravenclaw House, gave her colleague a look before turning her humorless eyes back to Hugo. "Nevertheless, you almost killed _yourself,_ Mr. Weasley. We hope that this punishment will impress upon you the seriousness of your actions."

"And we'll try to make it a _fun_ detention," said Professor Sprout, the Headmistress. Both of her colleagues stared at her. "...What?" She sighed, turning back to Hugo, who was now looking petulant. "We realize you didn't mean any harm, Hugo, but you have to understand that what you did truly offended the merpeople. They're our neighbors, and their territory deserves our respect. I mean, how would you feel if, say—the merpeople in that village used magic to come on land, then marched up to Ravenclaw Tower to mess with your things?"

"They can come on land? How? I promise to share my stuff with them if they do!"

"I'm getting a headache," said Professor Baumgartner.

"Look, I know I made the merpeople mad, but—I don't understand _why,_" Hugo grumbled, slumping down even further. "I just wanted to see my friend. And I think the merpeople are really cool."

"Well, if you really like them so much, you should respect their wishes, shouldn't you?" Professor Sprout suggested.

"But _Lacu_ wanted me there..."

"Well, Lacu is not the Merchieftainess anymore than you are the Headmaster. The two of you can't just change the rules all willy-nilly."

Hugo pouted, glaring down at his shoes. There was no way he was going to win this argument, was there? He may as well try to negotiate on the surrender terms. "I don't want the rest of the House to be mad at me. Can we make it _two_ weeks detention but let us keep the fifty points?"

"Well...Ara?"

Professor Wei pursed her lips. "I suppose." They _were_ neck-and-neck with Slytherin, after all.

Hugo looked at the portraits on Professor Sprout's walls, trying to hide a sneaky expression. "And...since it's the merpeople I offended...maybe my detentions should be going back down to the village to perform community service or something?"

"Just for that, we're taking the points," said Professor Baumgartner (a former Slytherin).

"And I'm afraid we're _still_ going to have to write your parents," Professor Sprout added.

"OH NOW YOU'RE JUST BEING _CRUEL!_"

* * *

Lacu had never been in more trouble—not only had she brought Hugo to the village, she had interrupted the festival and embarrassed her parents in front of the whole community, and they were keeping her on a shorter leash than Lagu's Grindylow. For several weeks she was basically confined to the house except for when she had school or chores. And there was certainly no opportunity to slip out after dark anymore—the whole town now seemed paranoid about children sneaking off to play with wizards, and the Merchieftain had at least two or three guards policing the village nightly.

Reaction among her peers was mixed—some of her friends were shocked to discover what she had been doing, while others considered it cool and asked about every detail. That made things a little better, she supposed, though she still felt miserable. She had no idea if she would ever get to see Hugo again, and she missed everything about him—the amazing things he told her, the boundless enthusiasm he had for every boring thing she told him, his freakish face that always seemed so warm and sincere...all she had of him was his book, hidden away somewhere else, but she rarely had an opportunity to read it. She was sort of afraid to, sure her parents would take it away if they caught her.

Her parents couldn't stay mad forever, but it was still more than a month before she was finally allowed something close to the freedom she had had before the festival. Even then, she had no idea what to do. Even if she could sneak out, it was doubtful that Hugo was still showing up every Friday and Saturday night—he had no doubt gotten in trouble too, or at least would have stopped after eight or ten absences on her part. She could theoretically see him during the day, but how would they set up a meeting time? Sometimes she would drift close to the school and peek out at the shore, hoping that by random chance he would be there looking for her too. She imagined that they were always just missing each other, which frustrated her to no end.

Summer was in full swing now, and Lacu knew that her time was limited. And then, one day, she saw them—the boats sailing across the surface of the water. They came only twice per year, on the first and last day of Hogwarts' term. Hugo would be leaving today.

She watched the boats from below, and then, looking around to see if anyone else was there, swam up to peek over the surface. She gazed at them hopefully, but...no. They were young humans, about Hugo's age, but none of them were Hugo. Her brow knit with frustration as she scanned the crowd. Where was the boat with Hugo in it?

One of the humans pointed out her head sticking out of the water, and Lacu dove back down before she had a dozen of them gawking at her. She swam listlessly back toward the shore, coming to the spot where she used to meet Hugo. She surfaced again, gazed up at the old castle and sighed. Hugo probably wasn't even in there anymore. It made her very sad. She had enjoyed taking him down into her village, however briefly; she still wished they had found a way for her to go on land with him, so that he could give her a tour of all the strange old halls and the magic classrooms and the towers and...

"LACU!"

She jumped and turned, blinking in amazement.

"(Hugo?!)"

He grinned, running up to the very edge of the water. He looked the way he must look up in the castle, which seemed very strange to Lacu's eyes—his scrawny body hidden by long, billowing robes, and his hair, which she was used to see sopping wet on his shoulders, curled up on his head like a crown of Grindylow horns. But he was smiling, and that was familiar. He was also wearing her necklace over his clothes, seemingly unaware of how strange or crude it looked in comparison.

He gazed over the lake, off to where she had seen the dinghies a few moments before.

"I can't go in the water today," he said sadly. "I'm supposed to be leaving now. But, uh, I missed the boats." He shrugged. "Oh well. The seventh-year graduates leave the same way, so I'll just hitch a ride with them. It'll give me a chance to tell Dominique's boyfriend some old family secrets."

Hugo bent his legs in a way that let him crouch down and get closer to her level; he unconsciously played with one of the pebbles on his necklace as he spoke. "I'm sorry if I got you into trouble," he said sheepishly. "And I'm sorry that we never got a chance to see each other after that. But I'm glad I caught you before I go."

She nodded. They smiled at each other, but each smile was a bit wan.

"I don't want our friendship to end," he said, sounding uncharacteristically solemn. "I mean, I _also_ don't want to get either of us in more trouble or make anyone mad, but I don't want to say goodbye forever either." He motioned to the scene around them. "It still stinks we can only see each other like this—especially _like this,_ if I can't even go in the water—but it's still better than not seeing each other at all, right?"

She nodded again. His face suddenly broke into a grin.

"Okay, then. So let's each spend the summer trying to think of some way we can make this work. I already have one idea." He remained crouching, but straightened his torso importantly. "I'm going to write up a new treaty between Hogwarts and your village. Don't look at me like that," he added, as Lacu raised an eyebrow. "My mum helped negotiate the treaty that got merpeople and centaurs reclassified as Beings. I can _totally_ pull this off."

Lacu was skeptical, but tried to smile encouragingly. He returned it, then looked over his shoulder back at the school. "I really have to go now. I wish I could write to you," he added. "Maybe I can put some letters in a bottle and have Niffler—my owl—drop them over the lake. Maybe even fill them with sand so they'll sink." He rubbed his chin. "Well, anyway...whether that works or not, first Friday afternoon in September, I'll be right here if I can. Okay?"

She nodded. Hugo grinned again reached out his hand. She took it and they shook.

He straightened his legs and waved. "Goodbye, Lacu."

"(Goodbye)."

A moment later he was walking back across the grass to the castle, once again fingering Lacu's necklace and humming the merpeople's song as best as he could remember.

Lacu, meanwhile, disappeared into the water, planning to sneak a look at her _Book of Spells_ as soon as she had a chance.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** The first book mentions Harry et al. taking boats at the end of the school year, and Rowling said in an interview that seventh-years take them when they leave. I'm assuming the other years take the carriages to the train.

I focus way too much on canon minutiae.

To be fair to Hugo, Niffler is a burrowing owl, so the name makes _some_ sense. ;-)


End file.
